Samantha sighed softly as she refreshed her phone constantly to check her bank account. After an exploration of an allegedly haunted house caused her to knock over and destroy a hundred-year-old library case, she had maxed out both her allowance AND a credit card to pay off the damages. “Come on, Dad, please put the money in!” She whined as she waited outside her dorm. After about ten minutes, a text flashed up.
“Dear Sammy, your credit card has been paid off, and enough money for food will be added tomorrow; however, we will be holding off on your Dorm payments for a solid year. If you wish to continue making us worry about your supernatural investi-whats-its, you can do that on YOUR dime! I recommend a decent job near the school.” She read out loud, slowly getting more frustrated as she let out a crestfallen sigh.
“Oof, rough!” Said a voice behind her. This was Josh Spindle, he shared a few classes with her, He’d even covered for her a few times when she did her investigations, and although she wasn’t thrilled that the nickname he teased her with, ‘Thelma Dorkly’ stuck with her, she had to admit he was kind of cute in a mysterious way.
“Yeah… no idea what I’m gonna do, I think they freaking expect me to crawl home with my tail between my legs.” She admitted while chewing her lip. Josh sighed and nodded. “Well, if you need a place to stay, you can stay at a house where a few friends and I live… Heck, you can even earn a bit of pocket money helping with a few…. Odd jobs here and there!” he told her with a half smile. She blushed a bit at the offer. “Long as I don’t gotta get naked, I’m totally in!” She answered quickly, trying to rile him up.
“Well, shucks, there go all of MY odd jobs!” He teased back, causing her to blush and puff her cheeks out hard. He just chuckled, “Only kidding! It’s on 13 River Red Lane when you are ready. Grab your stuff and I’ll get your room ready!” He said as he headed out.
Samantha breathed a sigh of relief. As she got packing. “Oh…. em…Gee-OODNESS! WAS THAT EFFING JOSH SPINDLE?!” Asked Samantha’s now former Dorm roommate. Samantha just grumbled. “Yes, Alex, that was him, he even offered me a place to stay! Hopefully, I can just hitch rides with him now that I don’t have a dorm.” She answered with a smile. Alex just squealed. “Little Sammy is growing up! Soon you’ll be having a supernatural-themed wedding and a honeymoon in the Bermuda Triangle!” She teased. “SHUT UP AND LET ME PAAAAAAAACK!” Whined a red in the face, Samantha, as she finished loading her stuff.
Samantha used some money to take a Taxi to her new home. “Alright! Here we are at 13 River…Red…Lane….. Wow!” She said that as she looked at the house, it was about three stories and looked even older than the mansion she explored. “How can a few college kids afford all this?!” She asked aloud. “Simple, it originally belonged to an owner who sold it as soon as he got it in his name, he said he’d sell it cheap if we erased all records of his family name… something about a crazed killer in his family heritage” Said Josh as he appeared.
Josh just smiled and grabbed some of her stuff. Samantha smiled and took the rest as she followed him. “Really man… I can’t thank you enough for all this, so when do I get to meet the other housemates?” She asked curiously. He led her to her room and set her stuff in the walk-in Closet. “We all sort of have conflicting schedules, I’ll try and pencil you in for a meeting, just… You might have to be cool real fast with what you see.” He explained with a nod. “I’ll be out back cleaning the hot tub, I recommend a dip later if you are up for it!” He said as he headed out.
Samantha just smiled as she unpacked while setting her bikini aside. “Hot tub, eh? NICE!” She said as she opened a desk for her notebooks. A stack of Newspapers greeted her, a few headlines caught her eye, they were all about murder victims with carved smiles on their faces. “Mr. Bad day strikes again, fifteen casualties by Lakehouse… killer never caught and remains at large… this must be that killer Jason was talking about… Wait, this was last summer!” She said with a bit of fear. She set the papers under her bed and fully unloaded her stuff. “Maybe Jason can clue me in over dinner…That’s just creepy!” She said while slipping into a small tank top and some loose-fitting Jammies.
Feeling a sense of Exploration, she decided to check out the rest of the house, making sure to AVOID the Library. She checked out the kitchen and made a quick sandwich while she watched the news, a stash of human body parts had just been unearthed from a sinkhole in the woods. “My……god… WHAT’S WITH ALL THE DEATH?!” She whined as she shivered a bit. Trying to shake it off, she saw a girl with blue hair come in in some cute, stylish, gothic hand-stitched pyjamas.
“Oh hey! You must be Josh’s Vi… girlfriend! I’m Megan!” She said with a wave. Samantha blushed hard. “Nonono I’m just his friend! I’m Samantha! Friends call me Sammy!” She said while trying to catch her breath. Megan just giggled and nodded,
“Whatever ya say! I was gonna hit the hot tub, wouldn’t mind a cute girl joining me later!” She said as she winked. “Uh… sure… so are you a college student too?” She asked, Megan just smiled and brushed her long blue locks back. “Oh yeah! I WAS taking Business and fashion classes, but recently I have been trying to get into Medical school!” She explained.
Samantha nodded, “I have been floundering since I got my Photography classes out of the way, I think I am gonna finish my Master’s and go from there!” She replied, though she was noticing Megan was checking her out in a weird way, it was clearly not sexual, but more of sizing her up. “Interesting! I am sure it’ll all be over soon before you know it! If you ever need help with your classes, lemme know! Ciao!” she told her as she grabbed some cookies before heading out. Samantha saw her drop a knife and pick it up before heading out. “She didn’t put the knife back? Wait… all she got was cookies! Why did she even need a knife? Weird…” She said as she went to check on Jason, who had just dropped something heavy out of the hot tub.
“Oh heya, Josh! How’s the tub coming?” She asked. Jason looked at her with a bit of a glare. “It’s coming! Sheesh, gimme time!” He said with a bit of a snippy tone, causing Samantha to huff. “Hey, I was just checking, no need to get all huffy! What even is the holdup?” She asked as she went to look at what he got out of the hot tub, he quickly tried to shove her back. “Just some trash okay?! Look I’ll be done soon, just… HEY!” He tried to reason, but Samantha just brushed by him, seeing the remains of a dead, horrified-looking girl in a bikini.”That’s Becky Bronson! She was a cheerleader at my high school! I hadn’t seen her since she locked that Sophomore in the freezer! WHAT THE HELL?!” She asked in horror as Josh sighed… “It’s… a long story… look, I know you are about to try to call the police… so let me just say right now… Don’t!”
“AND WHY THE HELL SHOULDN’T I, YOU PSYCHO?!” She demanded as she backed up, unfortunately, into Megan, who was now in a black bloody nurse outfit. “Because we have your address, your family’s entire list of names and work schedules, and you really have nowhere else to go…. So I’ll make this simple: Either try to run and join Becky before your family follows suit! Or…. Join Josh and me in the hot tub tonight and learn about those Odd Jobs Josh talked about.” She told her. Samantha just gulped and nodded. “Hot tub night with two cuties? That’s all you had to say!” With a terrified giggle.
Later that night, Samantha sighed as she slowly slid up her yellow bikini bottoms. “This has to be a dream… No, a NIGHTMARE! Why would they do that to Becky? Are they responsible for all those other murders?! What am I gonna do???” She asked herself as she headed to the hot tub, where Josh and Megan were casually chatting and munching on pizza. They waved to Samatha as she slowly sank in, doing her best to avoid them on the far side of the tub. “Well, hey there, cutie! How ya gonna talk all the way over there?” Asked Megan with a wide smile. “VERY LOUDLY!” Yelled Samantha, causing Josh to pinch the bridge of his nose while Megan giggled. “Suit yourself!” She replied as she stood up, revealing her curvy body, with surgical scars all over it.
“Anyway, as you have guessed… This house is full of killers, Josh, me… and a few others you’ll meet later! We will not try to harm you as long as you do not try to harm US, which includes contacting the police, or telling people about what we do… Now, as you can tell, this job can be messy, so you will have to help hide bodies from time to time and learn how to falsify information that would otherwise incriminate us, as well as other tasks that require on-the-job training. We will teach you, heck, we’ll even PAY you!” Explained Megan, though the more she talked, the more Samantha wanted to protest.
“Why? Josh… I thought I liked you, but you all are monsters!” She said as she looked at him, his green eyes pierced hers and turned to slits. “The girl Becky locked in a freezer and killed was my sister. I wanted to hurt her a long time ago, but my journal was found by my father, and I spent the rest of my Grade school years in a mental institution… Becky was one of many by the time I got to her… hell, until you reminded me, I had almost forgotten WHY I killed her… For what it’s worth, I liked you back, still do even! It’s just… this is one of my many quirks… I hope you’ll warm back up to me later.” He replied as he looked at her, though it was clear she just wanted to run as far as she could. “I… I don’t know how, but I’ll find a way out of all this… but until then, I expect to be at college on time!” She said as she stormed off. Jason just looked down and sighed while Megan giggled. “I LIKE her, she’s very spunky! That’s the kinda girl you need, Josh!” She said as she made cute eyes at him, causing him to grumble.
Samantha sighed in her bed and tried to take her mind off the situation by playing a JRPG. A notification went off that a deposit had been put into her account. She paused the game and checked her bank before widening her eyes. “This is…. Twice what I need for housing allowance!” She said before a text from Josh came. “You still can’t leave, but I thought this might cover your living expenses… sorry again…” She read with a sigh. “I still hate this with every fibre of my fucking being…. But it’s better than any other option I had… I’ve just got to wait for them to slip up!” She said as she went back to gaming, but was still completely terrified for her life.
